


Hindsight

by SilverQuill



Category: Tangled (2010), Tangled: The Series (Cartoon)
Genre: Aftermath, Character Study, Father-Daughter Relationship, Gen, Minor Violence, My First Fanfic, Nightmares, Regret
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-07
Updated: 2018-06-07
Packaged: 2019-05-19 06:49:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,033
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14868804
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverQuill/pseuds/SilverQuill
Summary: A one-shot character study on Corona's Captain of the Guard and his feelings after the events of Season One. Also my first fanfic ever.





	Hindsight

**Author's Note:**

> Hey everybody! As you probably saw in the summary, this is my very first fan fiction ever published. What better place to start than the Tangled fandom, which is one of my favorites?
> 
> This particular one-shot was born from the realization that Cassandra's dad is not a warm-and-fuzzy type of guy. After watching the original Tangled movie for the umpteenth thousand time and seeing what he was willing to do to Eugene, who was only a thief, I found myself wanting to know how he might handle the case of Varian, who not only tried to commit murder, but the murder of the captain's own daughter.
> 
> And viola, this one-shot was born. I'm a little nervous about publishing a fanfic for the first time, so if you like this work, please, please drop me a comment and let me know, it means a lot.

They hadn't told him what had happened, not right away.

He had noticed, of course, and tried to gain information, but when it came to the assault and its results, everyone seemed to be incredibly tight-lipped.

He supposed they wanted to let him rest and heal, recover from his injuries, but all _he_ wanted was to find out how his little girl had handled things.

Well enough, he supposed, being that the queen had returned safely, but well enough had never satisfied him. He wanted detail, clarity, exactness.

In the end, it was the queen who gave him that. She sat beside his bed in the royal infirmary and explained, in her sincere, quiet way, everything that had taken place since that beast had charged from the fog and taken him out of commission, since he had let his daughter draw her sword and lead.

Shock had stolen his words. He lay there, unmoving, in the bed as the queen's words sunk into him, penetrated him, deeper than any sword could ever go.

She had recognized his need for time, time to process, time to think, and she had risen and quietly tiptoed from the room, leaving him with only his thoughts for company.

 _Cassandra_. That was all he could think at first, the name of his daughter, the little raven-haired girl whose first steps had been to his sword, the baby who had not been born his, but who had quickly _become_ his.

She had led well. No, better than well, she had done better than he could have. Who knew how many of those cursed metal creatures she had taken down? And her men- she had brought them back with barely a scratch among the lot of them.

But she, herself, was a different story. His hands balled into fists when he thought of it.

His little girl, being slowly crushed in the relentless metal grip of that monstrous thing. His daughter, helpless, weaponless, with the life being pressed out of her.

And the boy...

He remembered the boy from the day of the blizzard, slipping right past the guards, screaming the princess's name, attacking her right in her own home, babbling something about a promise. They had thrown him out like the worthless piece of garbage that he was and moved on, but the captain had known, from that day, that he was dangerous.

He hadn't questioned the orders from the king to stop the princess from reaching the boy's home. He hadn't been surprised when the word came, the loss of the sundrop flower. He'd expected something along those lines. Desperate people did desperate things.

But then had come the metal creature hidden in the princess's birthday gifts, and the fog, and the beast. And he realized that the boy had crossed a line from desperate to deadly. And he'd been wounded, and he'd had to let her go...

And the boy had _crushed_ her. Tried to kill her. Tried to kill _his daughter._

Were it not for the princess, he would have.

That was perhaps the thought that hit closest to home. Cassandra was a born protector; it was so strange to think of her needing protection.

She wasn't even here now. She was off who-knew-where, chasing those rocks with the princess and the thief and an assortment of thugs. Not exactly the kind of company that set his mind at ease.

She could handle it, he knew that, but he wanted to be with her, to keep her safe, even though he knew she didn't need it.

As for the boy, he was locked away, deep in the dungeon beneath the castle where he belonged. _Good_ , the captain thought. There was nothing he would have liked better than to chain him up in a prison cell and throw away the key.

No, he deserved worse than that. The captain ran through the laundry list of the boy's crimes.

Grand theft, obviously, where the sundrop was involved. Not to mention the poisoning of the entire castle with truth serum. Then multiple counts of high treason. Kidnapping, blackmailing a member of the royal family, attempted regicide, attempted murder...

Cassandra...

For Cassandra alone, the boy deserved no mercy in the captain's mind. Everything he had done carried the death penalty. And if the captain had only been allowed, he would have been more than happy to carry it out, slowly and painfully.

But no, the princess had put her foot down before she left. He was only a child, she had said, he was grieving. It was partly my fault anyway, she had said, and he was my friend.

So the captain had to settle for seeing him in chains, confined far away from the other prisoners. He found ways to torment him, little things that the princess wouldn't notice. Things like "forgetting" to feed him a few times, or dropping hints about the different things that might be done in lieu of the execution the boy so richly deserved.

It was petty, perhaps even cowardly, but he had to do it. He had to do something to avenge what had so nearly happened to his precious daughter.

If there was one thing he hated, it was feeling helpless. And the boy's attack had introduced him to one enemy he was absolutely helpless against.

Every time he closed his eyes or tried to rest, they came.

Nightmares, visions of Cassandra in the grip of that iron monster with the breath squeezed out of her lungs.

And there was nothing, nothing he could do...

His little girl had needed him. And he hadn't been there for her. He hadn't been there.

He had _failed_ her.

The boy had caused him to fail his daughter for the first time, and he hated him for it. No matter what the princess said, the last thing he wanted to do was show mercy. He wanted to take the boy and feel him break beneath his hands.

Because he had failed her, failed his daughter, his little girl.

Cassandra...

Maybe they had won. Maybe the boy was no longer a threat. Maybe Cassandra was safe.

But he should have been the one to save her.


End file.
